WooSox celebrate PawSox Heritage Day to honor the ballclub that came before

Donned in Pawtucket Red Sox jerseys and ball caps, the Worcester Red Sox celebrated PawSox Heritage Day on Saturday, August 12, to commemorate the Boston Red Sox Triple-A affiliate that came before.

Accentuated by a Wilyer Abreu grand slam, the WooSox took game 4 of their six-game series against the Buffalo Bisons, 8-4, in front of both WooSox and PawSox fans. According to WooSox Vice Chairman Mike Tamburro, who was president of the PawSox from 1985 to 2015, the second annual PawSox Heritage Day in the WooSox' short history was “a great day to celebrate the past.”

“It was wonderful to bring in the [PawSox] season ticket holders and fans to let them see this ballpark a second time,” Tamburro said. “A lot of people thought last year was a novelty—we did it one time, the ballclub won’t do it again—but when the Worcester club invited those season ticket holders out the second year, there was such joy and gratefulness from those people. It was heartwarming. It really was.”

For roughly 50 years, the Red Sox Triple-A affiliate was located at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, a northern Rhode Island city just outside Providence. In 2018, the team announced its intent to relocate to Worcester in the coming years, and Polar Park officially opened in 2021.

This season on PawSox Heritage Day, Tamburro said he met with PawSox fans in Polar Park’s JetBlue Hangar, and their gratitude was “remarkable.”

“There were so many fans who weren’t up in the hangar who I just ran into at the ballpark that day who wanted to come over and say hi and say how bad they felt that Rhode Island lost this team and what a wonderful ballpark this is in Worcester,” he said. “I think everybody won Saturday. It was just a special day.”

Before the "PawSox" took the field, several Rhode Island-based organizations and representatives were honored in pre-game ceremonies. The Boys & Girls Club of Northern Rhode Island was honored as the "Heart of Rhode Island" (the ceremony typically called "The Heart of Worcester") and made up the High-5 Tunnel; members of the Woonsocket City Council threw Ceremonial First Pitches; and Mayor Maria Rivera of Central Falls threw a Ceremonial First Pitch as the game’s "Hometown Hero."

Later in the 6^th inning, the Polar Park mascot race featured four additional runners at the line along with Woofster, Smiley, and Roberto—former PawSox mascots Paws and Sox, the Dunkin' mascot Cuppy, and the Polar Beverages mascot Orson, who ended up leading the chase.

Out at the Summit Street Fair, fans had the opportunity to add PawSox garb to their merchandise collections at the WooSox Team Store's pop-up shop. PawSox gear is still available at the WooSox Team Store for those who were not in attendance, or online at https://woosox.milbstore.com/.

Although PawSox Heritage Day was a special day to commemorate the Pawtucket Red Sox, Tamburro said he invites Rhode Island fans back to Polar Park to see the WooSox any time.

“I think those [PawSox] fans are really going to become ambassadors for us [in] Rhode Island,” he said. “We invite the Rhode Island fans to come and see Polar Park.”